Just Institutions and Institutional Justice in Global Politics

01.10.2014 - (idw) Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung

The Annual Conference of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) on 6th and 7th October 2014 focuses on three aspects of institutional justice: distributive justice, procedural justice and recognitional justice. International experts will discuss how such justice claims can be addressed by international institutions.
All too often justice and peace come into conflict, and one is pursued at the expense of the other. Before strategies of Just Peace Governance can be implemented, three steps are in order: First, peace and justice have to be understood in their own right, as values and norms of distinct character and demanding specific, sometimes divergent, action. Second, the tension between peace and justice has to be understood as well as the peculiar nature of justice conflicts and their effect on peace. Third, ideas have to be developed how justice conflicts can be solved and peace and justice be reconciled through international institutions and the rule of law. This, in a nutshell, is the agenda of PRIF's current research programme "Just Peace Governance".

This years PRIF Annual Conference "Just Institutions and Institutional Justice in Global Politics" is devoted to the latter: Just institutions and institutional justice in global politics. The assumption is that institutions promote peace best, if actors perceive them as just. Only if basic justice claims are met, actors are likely to follow institutional rules voluntarily, i.e. without reference to the fear of sanctions or narrowly defined cost-benefit-calculations. Justice claims can refer to the allocation of values, the processes of decision-making and the granting of status and respect. Therefore, the conference will concentrate on three aspects of institutional justice: distributive justice, procedural justice and recognitional justice and analyze how such justice claims can be addressed by international institutions.